


La Résistance

by brazilianchild



Category: Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, F/M, Slow Burn, all the characters swear because that's just something I need, badass zombie killer squad, some kickass cinder and thorne otp, the whole squad kicks some extreme booty
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-03-28 09:02:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13900722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brazilianchild/pseuds/brazilianchild
Summary: In a place of disastrous chaos where the dead are alive, world's most famous killer Cinder (or as the world knew her, Selene) had been running from her destiny for months, trying to right her wrongs by killing as many zombies as possible. While simultaneously pretending she isn't the most wanted person in every country.All because she knows a secret.And you can only run from your fate for so long until it comes back to haunt you.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For my Mia, thank you for all your help, none of this would've been possible without your undying love and support, and also your awesome ideas. I love you <3
> 
> Spotify playlist for this whole fanfic: https://tinyurl.com/y9kgucr5

__

_“They will not force us, they will stop degrading us. They will not control us, we will be victorious.”_

Cinder ducked behind the abandoned car, she opened her titanium finger and filled it up with more of her special bullets. She closed it up again and stretched out her hand making sure it was all functioning normally. She then pulled out her two guns and refilled them, just in time to hear a moan and some shuffling. She rolled around and placed her guns in the hood of the car shooting at the approaching zombie four times. The disfigured man tumbled to the ground. Cinder just kept both her guns out and walked around the car towards the man. Her interface immediately kicked into gear.

MICHAEL MYERS, 43 YEARS OLD 

ID #0084753987

BORN 3 MAR 83 T.E 

She blinked away the information before it could start going into his netfeeds. His personal life was something she didn’t want to see. The infected one was wearing a shirt and a tie, probably at work when he got hit with letumosis.

Just a normal man doing his job, but now… he was a monster. And it was all her fault. She shook her head, she couldn't afford to think like that. Not now. Not ever. All she had to do was concentrate on fixing her mistakes, which means eradicating the infected one by one. 

So she pulled out her left land and shot a bullet out of her finger straight into his head. Cinder turned her head counting 1..2..3… she heard the explosion and turned to see what she always saw: lots of blood and gore of what used to be a head. She put away her guns, satisfied and walked away from this mess. She put on her gloves that went all the way up her elbows, successfully covering both her cyborg and normal hand. Cinder walked towards her yellow jeep, making sure to step over the dozens and dozens of bodies she’d left scattered. I mean, they didn’t call her the best zombie killer ever for nothing.

___

Cinder settled for a blue house to be her home for the night. She tentatively opened the front door, gun at the ready in case any one had taken claim of the house already. She turned, her back to the outside wall besides the door. Cinder pulled out a little bell out of her pocket and rung it loudly. A few seconds went by and as expected a zombie came running out of what seemed to be the kitchen. She let it rush out of the house before shooting him in the back twice. The zombie tumbled on the front steps. She then shot at his head, not thinking the victim worthy of one of her special bullets, she turned her back on him. She wanted to save those. 

Cinder then walked into the house, gun still out. It was a typical suburban home, with stairs on the entrance leading to the second story. She closed the door behind her and made a lap around the ground floor: empty. She came back to the stairs and climbed them as quietly as possible. Pictures of families and children with missing teeth adorned the walls. Cinder avoided looking at them as much as possible. That was one of her rules, don’t get attached to the ones that are already gone.

She got to second floor and opened the doors one by one. A tiled bathroom. A pink bedroom scattered with teddy bears. Another bedroom with sunflowers on the walls. A closet filled with linens. As soon as Cinder approached the master bedroom she got hit with a strong smell. She grimaced, knowing what was expecting her on the other side. The door creaked as she opened it slowly. There was a middle aged couple splayed on the bed. Their bodies all torn up from the damage the zombie had caused. Their faces were so damaged they were unrecognizable. Cinder sighed and closed her eyes, repeating her rule over and over in her head. She went over to the bed and pulled out the glove of her cyborg hand. She shot at each of their heads and was already out the door before the bullets could explode. 

After locking all the doors at least three times and boarding up the windows, Cinder could finally rest. She collapsed on the living room couch already pulling out her port screen. She turned it on and threw it on top of the coffee table. Cinder draped an arm over her eyes and waited. 

“Hi Cinder!” She smiled as she recognized the perky voice, “Hey Iko.” 

“I see you’re still in Sacramento, California. How did it go today? Did you find me a body yet? Please, please, please tell me you did.” 

Cinder rubbed her eyes with one hand, “I’m sorry I didn’t. I looked in all the tech shops but all the droids were either stolen or broken.” 

“Oh,” the port screen chimed dejectedly “that’s okay. I’m sure we’ll find one eventually.” 

Cinder sighed and stared at the ceiling, contemplating. Iko used to be a household droid. She was an older model with a programming error that caused her to have a full- blown personality. Even though it was an error in her system, Cinder loved Iko’s dominant and rambling personality and she became one of Cinder’s only friends. But with the outbreak of letumosis and all the drama that happened in Cinder’s life because of it, Iko had to abandon her body. Cinder managed to save her personality chip and adapt it into her portscreen, so wherever Cinder went Iko came with her. They’ve been trying to find her a body in their spare time, searching every android shop in every city they went by. But they’ve had no luck in finding one so far. Cinder knew that Iko missed having an actual body but there was not much she could do except keep looking.

“Anyways,” Cinder said, trying to change the subject, “my interface is telling me I killed 76 infected today. A dozen less than yesterday unfortunately. I owe you ten univs.”

Iko squealed in excitement. “I’ll add that your tally.” 

Cinder hummed in agreement, even though it was useless for Iko to keep a tally. Her interface had started to count ever since she pulled the trigger for the first time, about four years ago. When everything just went to shit...Cinder snapped out of her daydream. 

“Iko, look for the nearest city that needs our help the most.” Cinder waited as Iko’s fan whirred.

“That would be Las Vegas, Nevada. According to some still functional video cameras a military base was completely wiped out by the infected. Hundreds of them now navigate the streets. It is unknown if the military is aware of this attack, but the base has not been accessed by anyone yet.” 

Cinder stood up, already deep in thought. “How long of a drive is it from here to Las Vegas?”

“Approximately 8 hours and 38 minutes.” Cinder’s mind whirred, her interface already coming up with calculations. It was a long drive and they had an enormous possibility of running into the army, which was who she was actually running away from. She also still had food and water to last her a couple more days so the risk just didn’t seem worth it. But still, something nagged at the back of her head and forced her to ask, “And how many android shops?” 

“87.” 

Cinder grinned, the decision already made. “We leave at dawn.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's the first chapter of "La Résistance"!! I'm so excited to write this and share our ideas with you all. This was only the first chapter so I know it isn't that interesting and short but things start to pick up very soon ;) 
> 
> \- Liv


	2. Chapter 2

_“There ain’t no rest for the wicked, money don’t grow on trees”_

Thorne opened the last crate which he discovered to contain a bunch of packaged food. His eyes glowed when he found his favorite treat: twinkies. 

He smirked and took two of them, pocketing one and eating the other. He considered taking more but he’d already stolen enough from the shipment as is. The zombie apocalypse just seemed to reinforce the military’s attention to their stock. They made sure everything was exactly as they were told it would be. 

That still didn’t prevent Thorne from stealing a couple things. He was sure if they ever noticed what he took, his infamous luck would help him. 

He closed the crate and walked back to the cockpit, plopping on the pilot’s chair. 

“Darla, how much time before we land?”

“Estimated time of arrival to Las Vegas, Nevada is 16 minutes,” The auto- control system, Darla, responded.

Thorne nodded, he looked over the controls making sure auto landing was on. Then he reached for the radio pulling out the microphone. He put it to his mouth and hesitated, contemplating whether he should introduce himself as his actual title, Cadet, or call himself the title he deserved. 

Thorne smirked, knowing it wasn’t even a competition to begin with.

“LV- 13, this is Captain Thorne asking for permission to land, OVER.”

He waited, only hearing static in return. Thorne frowned, they usually would have answered by now. 

“LV- 13, this is Captain Thorne. Do you copy? OVER.”

Thorne waited but once again: no answer. 

He scratched his jaw thinking of all the possibilities of why they weren’t answering. Maybe their radio was broken and they just couldn’t answer. Maybe the person in charge of monitoring it fell asleep or took a really long bathroom break.

Or the most plausible and horrible possibility of them all: their camp got invaded by the infected and they’re all dead. 

Thorne shuddered at the thought. Even if it was true he still had to check out what the hell was going on down there. If it was a ghost town then he’d just head back to his compound.

_____

_This was the stupidest plan I’ve ever had._

Cinder thought to herself as she ran down down Las Vegas Boulevard. She didn’t dare look back but she could estimate about 150 zombies were at her tail now. She swerved around abandoned cars, occasionally shooting at a zombie that got a little too close. She ignored her interface warning about her fast heartbeat and her high adrenaline.

She had been so stupid. 

She’d been faced with ten zombies while on the way to her third tech store and being too lazy to get more ammunition from her backpack she just threw a grenade at the group. It successfully got rid of them but the sound of the explosion managed to attract the attention of 80 more zombies. So that’s why she was here, running down what used to be Las Vegas’ most famous tourist sites, with over a hundred zombies hunting her down.

_Come on Cinder, think. You can’t outrun them forever._

She looked around looking for anything, _anything,_ that could save her from this plight. She caught a tower blooming in her vision to the right. As she kept running she could see half of what seemed to be a castle-like building. Her interface told her the establishment was called Excalibur Hotel Casino. Half of the hotel had crumbled into rubble, leaving some lone towers standing amidst the mess. Cinder was already pulling up the blueprints for the hotel as a shabby plan formulated. It was desperate and very risky but it was all she had. She took a right and bolted up the abandoned escalators. Old pictures of the Casino were still built up in front of her. What used to be the roof of the walkway had now collapsed and slanted in a steep angle. 

Cinder ran up the debris and jumped, reaching for one of the surviving buildings in front of her. She caught on to the ledge, swinging dangerously. She huffed and tried using her cyborg hand to push herself up and onto the safety of the roof. 

Cinder gasped in pain as a zombie clung onto her cyborg leg. The added weight was almost too much to handle and she could feel the wires of her leg strain against her skin. The woman tried biting the leg and seemed to get angrier when she was met with titanium instead. Cinder swung her leg madly, using her other leg to kick the zombie in the face. The woman finally let go and fell into the hole between the debris and the tower. 

The zombie- killer gathered the rest of her strength to pull herself up and over the ledge. She laid there, splayed on the ground and stared at the bright sky for a solid 5 seconds. 

Cinder closed her eyes and took a deep breath, knowing that this peace was only temporary. 

She sat up and observed the damage of her cyborg leg. Her ankle was bent into a weird angle and as she pulled her pant leg up she could see some major wires seemed to have disconnected. She could fix the damage but she would need better tools and time. 

And time was not a luxury she had right now. 

So Cinder stood up carefully, balancing on her good leg and reloaded her gun. She shot at the rare zombies that managed to creep up the tower and tried to come up with a plan to get her out of there as soon as possible. 

_God, she had been stupid._

Cinder was deep in thought when she heard some loud rumbling. She looked up and saw a military ship roaming through the air. 

Well, _fuck._

She spun around, trying to find a suitable hiding place. But the roof was bare and the best she could do was hide in the shadows and hope that fate was on her side.

But relying on fate was never an option. Just like being captured by the military wasn’t an option either. 

And that’s when it hit her. She could lure the ship to her and take out everyone in it. The resources inside would be very helpful and she could go to places so much faster. She could even reach a certain place that she’s been dying to get to. This ship could be her salvation. 

Cinder aimed her gun to the sky and shot twice. She yelled for help and waved her arms frantically. The ship kept at their trajectory and for a second Cinder thought her plan had failed. But then the ship turned and went straight to her. 

Cinder sighed with relief. She looked down and made sure all her cyborg parts were covered. No need for them to to know she was the infamous Selene until later. 

She waited as the ship landed, holding on to the railings for balance.

Cinder didn’t know what she expected to come out of the ship but it certainly wasn’t him.

He was an arguably good-looking man in his 20’s. He was sporting a well-worn leather jacket and aviator glasses. He sauntered out of the ship with a dimpled smirk and it took all of Cinder’s self control to withhold her own. 

This was going to be too easy.

He looked her up and down, analyzing. Cinder restrained herself from fidgeting with her gloves. Her interface kicked into gear.

CARSWELL THORNE

ID #0082688359

BORN 22 MAY 106 T.E

CADET CARSWELL THORNE CONVICTED TO 4 YEARS PRISON SENTENCE…

Cinder blinked the green text out of the vision. Whatever his crimes were, it wasn’t relevant to her situation right now. He obviously was working for them again.

The world ending tends to put your values into a very different perspective.

“I’m Captain Carswell Thorne, most people call me Thorne. And I am at your service.” He bowed his head and put his right hand out. 

It took her a second to realize he was reaching for her hand. Cinder gulped and reluctantly complied, placing her left hand into his palm. She didn’t dare blink as he kissed her gloved fingers, petrified he would sense the titanium he was holding. 

He didn’t.

“And you are?”

Cinder gave him a small smirk. “In need of help,” she announced instead of giving him her name (either of them). He couldn’t know what name she went by, that was her biggest secret. Her mask, her protection from discovery. The world knew her as Selene, and she would use all her power to make sure they never found out that Selene and Cinder were the same person. 

Cinder motioned to her bent ankle, “I can’t walk on my own as you can see, so if you would help me get on the ship already that would be very helpful, thank you.”

His smirk only deepened with her poisonous words. He said nothing as he stood by her and wrapped his arm around her waist, helping her on to the ship.

Cinder was glad for the silence.

Of course, it only lasted about five seconds. 

“So, do tell. How does a pretty girl like you get stranded in Las Vegas, on top of an abandoned building? I mean you must be like what 17? 18?”

“16.”

Thorne whistled, shaking his head. “Wow that’s young. I’m surprised you even made this far alone. Or did you? Were you with the base in Las Vegas? Cause I went over there and it was a total ghost town. How did you survive? I mean, it was completely destroyed. How did they get run over by the infected? Like it’s a military base you’d think they’d be careful.”

Cinder grinded her teeth. God, this guy was already getting on her nerves. She hadn’t even been in his presence for more than five minutes.

He stopped his rambling and looked over to her, expecting an answer. She held back a sigh and responded vaguely, “I don’t know what happened. I was gone at the time.”

Thorne looked unsatisfied but nodded anyways.

“Is there anyone else on the ship?”

“Nope. Just me and the Rampion.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“The Rampion? The ship we’re currently on. Also the most beautiful thing ever created.” He exclaimed those words with such disbelief. Like she had personally offended him by not knowing immediately what the ship was.

Thorne set her on one of the many crates in the space. 

Cinder looked around the ship seeing if it would work with her. Yes, this would do very nicely. 

Thorne approached her, reaching for her leg but Cinder was faster. She grabbed his arm and spun him around, his back colliding with her chest. She wrapped her good leg around his waist and pressed her pointer finger on his neck. 

“Wowowoaahh what are you doing there darling?” Thorne spat out, panic dripping in his voice. 

Cinder broke into a wide smile, “Just taking over your ship, _darling._ ”

Thorne gave her finger a sidelong glance, not moving an inch. 

“Holy fuck. You’re Selene.”

Cinder clucked her tongue, not even bothering to answer him fully. He was going to be dead soon anyways.

“Wait, wait. Don’t shoot me. I swear I’ll help you. Like yeah, fuck the system. I could be your partner in crime, your accomplice. Lucky for you, I’m a criminal mastermind. I know the inside of the army and I could help you do whatever you want. I know where they store their resources and all. I mean just look me up and you’ll see I did a lot of bad things before letumosis broke out. And hey, you also need a pilot. The auto- take off is broken and if you don’t know how to fly you’re not going anywhere. Do you know how to fly a ship?” 

Thorne ended his incessant rambling to hear her answer. He took her silence as a yes.

“See? You need me.”

Cinder pondered this. She had no idea how to fly this thing. She could always learn but that would take practice and time. Which were things she didn’t have right now. 

She grabbed his shoulders and flipped him around. Thorne blinked up at her, shocked.

“You don’t plan on betraying me to the army? Or leave me to die by the infected?”

Thorne shook his head adamantly, “No!”

Cinder waited for the orange light to pop up on the corner of the vision. The indicator that he was lying and would stab her in the back.

It never came.

She sighed. 

“Fine. But one wrong move and you get a bullet between your eyes.”

Thorne let out a huge breath as Cinder slowly removed her finger from his neck.

He flinched when a stiletto knife spat out of her other finger.

“Now give me your left arm.”

Thorne blinked but handed his arm, “For what?”

“We need to remove your ID chip.”

He retracted his hand, taking a step back.

Cinder glowered, “Don’t tell me you’re squeamish.”

“Of course not,” he said with an uncomfortable laugh. “It’s just… I mean…”

Cinder kept staring.

“Nevermind,” he sighed and gave her his hand. 

She cut into his wrist and his fingers twitched with the intrusion. She extracted the blooded chip and tossed it out the open door. She pressed against his wrist, before cutting a strip of cloth from his sleeve and letting him wrap it around the wound.

“Is it just me, or is this a big moment in our relationship?”

Cinder scoffed, looking away from his wrist to his face.

“Where’s the cockpit so you can get us the fuck out of here?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy easter guys! hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

__

_“You are a ballbreaker”_

Cinder regretted her choice immediately.

She held on to the armrest of the co- captain’s chair tightly. The ship lurched to one side as Thorne hammered on the controls so hard Cinder was surprised he didn’t break them.

She’d never been prone to seasickness or what not but Thorne’s “flying” was making her stomach flop.

“I thought you said you could fly?” Cinder mumbled.

Thorne looked at her, incredulously. “ _What?_ I can fly!”

She rolled her eyes, “Let me rephrase that: I thought you said you could fly _well._ ”

Thorne scoffed, “Excuse you, I’m a great pilot.” He then grabbed on to the wheel and yanked it upwards. The Rampion finally lifted off the ground in a shaky departure. Cinder just prayed to all the stars above that he wouldn’t crash the ship.

Her mind was racing with all the possible liabilities of having put her trust in an ex-con. She then remembered her damaged ankle and thought she could use the distraction. She brought her cyborg foot onto her lap and pulled up her pant leg to examine it. She looked at the loose wires and uncapped her finger to reveal the screwdriver. She heard Thorne flinch and felt him stare. She bet he’d never seen a cyborg before. Well, he’d just have to deal with it because she really needed to fix this.

In no time, Cinder was done. She rolled her foot to see if it was stable enough and then let it drop to the ground. It would be fragile for a while but this would have to do. She closed her eyes and leaned back into her seat. Before her thoughts could wonder on to the cons of her situation she started to focus on the pros. Now that she had a ship she could _finally_ get some answers. She could try to end all this madness.

Before she got to delve properly into what she could do, Thorne broke the silence.

“So, mind telling me where we’re headed?”

“Europe.”

Thorne murmured, “Wow specific.”

Cinder raised a shoulder, “You’re only on a need to know basis. And what you need to know is that we have to get the closest to the East Coast as we can before we have to refill in supplies.”

Thorne, cocked his head. He was obviously annoyed at the lack of trust. But Cinder didn’t get too caught up feeling guilty about it. The only people she could fully trust was Iko and herself.

He sighed and eventually nodded, “Okay, sure Selene.”

Cinder visibly cringed at the use of her real name. She hated that name. It represented everything wrong in her life. The way the world saw her as: a criminal. She liked “Cinder” so much more. With it she could forget her true name, and escape all the responsibilities and pain that it usually brought with it.

But she couldn’t tell Thorne her other name. It was her mask against the world and if he ever betrayed her (he said he wouldn’t but one can never be too careful) she would lose that protection. Only her friends called her Cinder. And Thorne was most definitely not her friend.

She forced her face into a neutral expression but it was too late.

He’d already caught on, “What?”

“Nothing.” Her best course of action was to change the subject. She chose one that she suspected he particularly liked: himself. “I’m surprised someone like you was able to cut ties with the army so quickly. What’s up with that?”

A lie. He obviously was the type to do that sort of thing.

But he took the bait easily enough and shrugged. “Always hated it. Just did it because of my dad, he was a high ranking military official.”

Cinder caught on to the use of past tense but made no comment.

“That’s why I left it the first time. I had no intentions of going back but...well... extreme circumstances. They offered to get me out of jail if I helped them and I thought they could use a Captain.”

“Cadet,” she corrected him.

He frowned at her, “How do you know that?”

Cinder smirked and waved her hand with a flourish, “Magic.”

Thorne’s frown deepened and Cinder thought he might actually believe her. He looked her up and down and didn’t question her any further.

“Anyway...when I got settled I remembered why I hated it so much. I’ve been looking for a way out of it ever since and then hey, you came along and now all my prayers have been answered.”

His smirk widened into a wolfish grin, showing off his dimple. Cinder restrained herself from rolling her eyes and stared out the windshield.

“Still, I’m shocked you have no one waiting for your arrival. Is there truly no pretty girl out there crying her eyes out scared you’ll never come back?” Her comment was dripping with sass and she awaited his rebuttal. But she was met with silence instead.

Cinder turned and saw Thorne’s expression had completely changed. He was staring straight ahead with a hard look in his eyes and his jaw set. 

She looked down and wringed her hands awkwardly. It was obvious she’d touched a sensitive subject. 

After a long and uncomfortable silence he finally spoke.

“She’s better off without me anyway.”

She looked back to him and was surprised by the sad resolution his voice was tainted with. Cinder’s curiosity was peaked. She wasn’t going to pry though, if he wanted her to know anything else he would tell her.

He didn’t say another word.

Cinder pondered saying something along the lines of “I’m sure that’s not true” or “It’s going to be okay” but she opted for keeping her mouth shut. Cinder really didn’t know Thorne well enough to say any of that.

Plus, the world ending kind of ended all her optimism.

Thorne cleared his throat and shook his head. His face now back to it’s normal cocky expression. But his hands were still gripping the steering wheel too tightly to be considered casual.

“The showers are 100% functional if you want to take one. You look like you haven’t in a while so I suggest you go do that.”

Cinder took that poor insult as a _leave now_ and got up from the co-captain’s chair. She wanted to swat at him for that comment but she settled for just making a face at him.

Cinder strolled down the halls leaving Thorne to his troubled thoughts.

Thorne drummed his fingers against the wheel. The Rampion was already on auto-pilot but he liked sitting there. In the captain chair he always felt...powerful and sure. It also was one of the only places where he could think clearly.

He loved being a criminal mastermind again (even if it’s only been 5 minutes since he’d become one again). _God_ how he’d missed it. He missed his freedom and not having to keep repeating “Sir, yes, sir” every five seconds. Thorne wasn’t meant to be in the military, he knew that from the start. He spent the past few years facing utter hell.

Well… except for a couple things that were actually kind of great. 

Thorne got hit with a wave of guilt after remembering a certain blonde. He shouldn’t have left her like that. He should’ve stayed to protect her and be there for her...Thorne shook that thought away. 

No. She didn’t need him there. She’d be _safer_ if he was far far away keeping her from the trouble he usually brought alongside him. If he had stayed he would’ve caused all sorts of problems for her. And maybe with him long gone she’d finally find someone more suited for her and forget whatever lingering feelings she may have had for him.

Because now he was being the guy he always knew he was: the selfish man who breaks the innocent girl’s heart.

He wasn’t a hero, no matter how hard she had tried to convince him of such.

_Staying would’ve caused more harm than good. She deserves better than you._

He repeated to himself over and over.

He needed to believe it. If he didn’t then the guilt would take over and he’d crawl back to her from across the country. 

“How far do we have to go before we need to stop for supplies?”

Thorne snapped out of his reverie and turned to face Selene as she walked down the hall. She had changed into a pair of camouflage pants and a white t- shirt. She had probably raided the ship’s supplies for them. She was shaking out her wet hair and combing her fingers through it to untangle it.

“You know there’s something called a hairbrush. It’s this beautiful invention that was made to untangle your hair.”

She raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

Thorne just smirked and nodded, “I know, mind blowing stuff. I can give you one, I have like 5 extras.”

She sighed and plopped down into the co- captain’s chair. “You done being sassy so you can answer my fucking question?”

Thorne turned back to the controls and muttered under his breath, “Now look who’s being sassy…”

Instead of typing something out in the controls like Cinder thought he would, he just laid back in his chair and propped his feet on the control panel. “Darla, how long before we run out of gas?”

Cinder jumped when a voice echoed across the ship. 

“Approximately one hour and thirty seven minutes.”

She looked back to Thorne, “You didn’t tell me the ship had an AI.”

He shrugged. “You never asked. Darla, how far can we go from here to the east coast with that amount of gas?”

“580 miles.”

“What’s the closest city around that area?”

A pause. “According to my calculations, the farthest city you can reach is Albuquerque, New Mexico.”

Cinder turned to Thorne, “Why do you have so little gas? I thought a ship this size would be able to take a lot more.”

“Well, the army only gave me enough fuel to go to Las Vegas and back to prevent me from running away.” He smirked, “it seems like they were onto something.”

___

They landed on the middle of some sort of plaza in Downtown Albuquerque. The city had been completely devastated. It looked like a waste land with the few buildings completely covered in dust, one of the side effects of the frequent sandstorms that swept over this area.

They had to break into at least 3 gas stations to find sufficient gas to fill up the Rampion’s tank. She wanted it as full as possible so they would only have to stop one more time on their way to Europe. 

When they finished filling the tank they decided it was best to also break into a large department store for some extra supplies. Before all this letumosis stuff happened Cinder wouldn’t even consider breaking and entering. But now it came as naturally as breathing. It’s not like their owner would come back to use it.

They walked into store and Cinder grabbed one of the carts. Thorne drifted over to a control pad on the wall and started clicking away.

Cinder scrunched her eyebrows, “What are you doing?”

He shrugged and turned back to her with a smirk, “Just putting on some music to entertain us.”

_“What?”_ She shrieked as a song started playing through the store’s speakers. “No way! You know that zombies are attracted to noise. Do you want to get us killed?” She rushed over to try to get to the control panel but he blocked the way with his body.

“Come on, Selene just relax. You need to loosen up. No one has lived in this city since the sandstorms started to hit about 20 years ago so the chance of zombies being on our radius are so low. And besides, this makes our shopping so much more fun.”

He was swaying to the music and soon he started singing along to the chorus, “The sailors say: ‘Brandy, you're a fine girl. What a gooood wife you would be.’" His voice went up an octave as he sang the backing vocals: ”such a fiiiiiine girl.” Thorne had moved on to elaborate dance moves and Cinder could see it was a lost cause.

She sighed and turned to the right, “You take the left side and if you don’t meet me here in 15 minutes I’m going to assume you’re dead and leave without you.”

Thorne mumbled something incomprehensible and Cinder had a feeling it wasn’t something she wanted to hear anyways.

___

Thorne sang along to the Beatles song and spun around dramatically. God, they were timeless. 

He ditched his shopping cart a few steps behind, and threw a tiny slow globe from one hand to the other. He shuffled through the aisles, checking out any items worth taking. 

He left the “International” aisle and sauntered into the “Utensils”. His gaze shifted from item to item until he caught sight of a pair of scissors. 

Thorne froze, the snow globe slipping from his hands and shattering on the ground.

He slowly moved to pick the scissors up and held them still in his hand.

The scissors that could fulfill a promise made years back, but now felt so useless in his palms.

_“So, why is your hair so long?” Thorne asked bluntly. Cress‘ eyes widened in shock, but in Thorne’s defense he’d never been one for subtlety._

_She looked down, flushing. She curled a strand of hair around her finger._

_“Mistress never lets me be around sharp objects, scissors included. So I never get to cut it.”_

_Thorne studied the girl closely. They’d been friends for a while now (though their friendship mostly consisted of him sneaking in with Jacin’s help) and he’d managed to get to know her quite well. He liked her company. A lot._

_She was one of the few things in this god-awful base that made him want to get up in the morning._

_And he hated seeing her sad like this. So he put on his best smirk and tugged on her hair._

_“Okay, well, how about I try to find us some scissors and we can get you a haircut?”_

_Her eyes turned so round they looked like moons, “No! Mistress would notice and she would kill me!”_

_He nodded, “Yeah that’s a tiny mishap. But what-if we did it when we got out of here? It could be like our runaway gift?”_

_She smiled, “I’d like that.”_

_His smirk widened into a grin, “Well okay, so as soon as I find a pair of scissors we can get the fuck out of this hellhole. And live as outlaws and just run around America shooting zombies.”_

__

_“We could go anywhere!” she said enthusiastically._

__

_He laughed, “Yeah, anywhere. Anywhere you wanna go and I’ll take you there.”_

__

_She looked down in thought. Then her hand shuffled across the bed they were sitting on, and she linked her pinkie with his._

__

_“You promise?”_

__

_“I promise. All we need is a pair of scissors.”_

__

For a military base that was supposedly stocked with everything, scissors were impossible to find.

__

Now here he was, holding what used to be the key to their escape. And now it felt as useless as a pair of night goggles during the day.

__

He stored them away in his pocket. Just in case.

__

Thorne turned around to get back to his cart when a body came hurtling at him. He shuffled swiftly to the right, letting the zombie tumble past him. He reached for the kitchen knives behind him and got one in each hand.

__

He went into a fighting stance and he couldn’t help but note how mad Cinder was going to be when she found out he’d been wrong about the infected. The zombie recovered and came towards him. Thorne side stepped and just as the zombie passed him he plunged the knives into each side of its neck. The zombie gagged and collapsed to the ground.

__

Thorne turned to get a couple more knives and flipped them in his hand. He paused and quirked his head.

__

“They’re playing AC/DC. Appropriate,” he said to himself.

__

He then heard a massive crash from the other side of the store. He immediately bolted towards it. “SELENE!”

__

Thorne expected her to be laying on the ground in pain and writhing in fear of the zombies. Maybe covered in a couple items she happened to have knocked over. He did not expect to see that the noise had come from her cart ramming and running over two infected. She was now battling three of them and seemed to be winning. 

__

He had momentarily forgotten that Selene was no damsel in distress. This cyborg was the world’s most renowned zombie killer. And as she wiped her brow with 5 fallen zombies laying around her, Thorne knew he would never forget again.

__

She turned to face him and he saw that she had barely broken a sweat. She threw him a look so cold he felt fear course through his veins. “I fucking told you so.”

__

He didn’t respond. Thorne just stood there while she looked him up and down. He wasn’t sure but he thought he caught a flicker of relief in her eyes. She turned back around before it could register. “Now come on, let’s get our shit and leave before we attract any more infected.”

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to update. This has been sitting in my drive waiting to be finished for such a long while I just haven't been able to bring myself to finish it. 
> 
> I slipped some cresswell in there that just made me feel so warm inside. I love my babies. But don't worry we'll get to all the other ships eventually. All in good time my dears.
> 
> Also I just wanted to say that the quote from the beginning of the chapter usually explains the mood or the general feel for the chapter. So I suggest you guys google the lyrics and listen to the song while reading. I don't know it's just a tip. And also all the song excerpts I use are in the spotify playlist I created. The songs are in order according to chapter (so far). The link is in the beginning of the story i think. 
> 
> Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed it. 
> 
> \- Liv


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